Flashback to 1948-Flash Forward to 05/15/18

I will “Never” forget the hurricane that hit Newburgh around 1948. The roof was blown off of my grandparent’s house at 116 Smith St. and all the street lights were out and electrical wires were all on the ground throughout a large part of the city. We were all startled regarding what had occurred back then just as we are all startled regarding what happened this past Tuesday.

This past Tuesday my two sons, Philip and Omari, along with their friend Mr. Clean, were sitting outside in front of the Blacc Vanilla trying to get people to go vote in the school board election, for Philip was one of the candidates running. Eventually, they came inside and started conversing with a gentleman who was a news man from New York City who just happened to come into Blacc Vanilla to get something to eat. He is interested in purchasing some property in Newburgh, for he stated that he had heard so much about Newburgh while he was working in Europe. Evidently, Newburgh is being talked about throughout the world.

Wow! Anyway, he stated that he liked some of the properties which he has seen. All of a sudden Omari received a phone call telling him to take cover because a terrible storm was on the way. What? We all thought that was a joke, but within five minutes it started getting dark and rain started pouring and the wind was raging. The news gentleman got up and said that he would come back to Newburgh on another day but for now he was heading back to New York.

Within 10 minutes the wind started blowing and the rain became heavier. We all became very worried and as we were looking through the window all of a sudden a tree fell down on top of a car on North Miller Street. We knew then that we were being faced with a real serious storm. Wow! What about the school board election? We became very worried due to the fact that we knew just how badly this storm was going to affect the voter turn-out. It started getting dark and we all shook our heads and shoulders in fear of what was going to be forthcoming. Ironically, the storm didn’t last that long, but the damage that it had wielded was mind-blowing.

We decided to leave Blacc Vanilla to see what we could find out. As we were driving along the various streets we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. My mind was being taken back to 1948. Wow! Only, this storm was even more dreadful. We were very saddened as we saw trees all down in the streets and some roofs blown off of some buildings. Then the real devastating news was hearing about the young girl who lost her life when a tree hit the car that she was in on Robinson Avenue. Wow!

Our minds were very shattered as we rode around for we had no idea what was going on regarding the school board election. Truthfully, at that particular point and time, it just didn’t seem to matter as we were driving around seeing all of the horrific sights throughout the community. We finally wound up at the Board of Education and it was pitch dark. We went inside to wait for the results of the election, sitting in the dark with candles burning. WOW!

We didn’t get out of there until about 11 PM. The night in a way ended very well, for my son Philip Howard was the top winner with almost 3,425 votes. Ramona Burton second with almost 3,010, Sylvia Santiago with almost 2,725 and Mark Levinstein with almost 2,110.

Philip, Ramona and Sylvia won the three year seats and Mark won the one year seat. Carrie Robinson had almost 1,875 votes and Shoy Colbourne had almost 1,050 votes. Hopefully, Carrie and Shoy will get involved with some committees in the school district and then run again in the next school board election.

“Congratulations” Philip, Ramona, Sylvia and Mark. Hopefully, “ALL” of you will work together for our children!

My prayers go out to the family of the little girl that lost her life during this horrific storm, and also to the people whose properties were severely damaged!

This is “Lillie’s Point Of View” and I’m just having my say!